‘Rising young stars’ will open Gulf Coast Symphony’s new season. Here’s the schedule.
From Beethoven to The Beatles is the theme of the 61st season of the Gulf Coast Symphony that opens Saturday with talented young performers who are a couple on stage and off.
The first concerts this year on Oct. 15 features music by Stravinsky and Brahms and artists Geneva Lewis on the violin and Gabriel Martins on the Cello.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Immersive Performing Arts Center at Jeff Davis Campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport.
He and the orchestra can do really exciting things now that they have a new concert hall in which to perform, said Peter Rubartd, who is in his ninth season as music director of Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra. The modern venue helps attracts up-and-coming musicians who perform internationally.
“There’s lots of hype about rising young stars,” he said, and he calls Lewis and Martins the “real deal.”
Originally from New Zealand, Lewis began playing the violin at the age of three. Martins grew up in Bloomington, Indiana and began playing the cello when he was five. Both have received numerous accolades for their performances.
They will play Brahms Double Concerto in A minor for the first time together on stage, Rubartd said.
“The piece that they’re going to play is a landmark piece,” he said. Brahams wrote his last orchestral piece for violin and cello, he said.
For those who think of Brahams and his lullaby, this piece is not that. “This is just a big, towering masterpiece,” he said.
Tickets for Saturday night’s performance start at $25.
The 2022-23 season
This 61st season of Gulf Coast Symphony starts with classical music and presents it in a way that will appeal across the generations.
The schedule includes:
▪ Nov. 27 — Holiday Peppermint Pops, 4:30 p.m. at iMPAC, Gulfport. John Rutter’s Gloria, featuring The Hattiesburg Choral Union from University of Southern Mississippi
▪ Jan 14 & 15 — Tribute to MLK, 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at iMPAC in Gulfport and 3 p.m. Jan. 15 at Pascagoula Performing Arts Center. featuring soprano Luvada Harrison and a speaker to be announced
▪ April 11 — The Classical Mystery Tour: Music of the Beatles, 7:30 p.m. at iMPAC. The Beatles cover songs with the orchestra
▪ Mar 13 — Beethoven and Blue Jeans, 7:30 p.m. at iMPAC. Featuring pianist Artiso Sham
▪ Memorial Day Weekend — Sounds by the Sea tribute to our fallen heroes, performed in Gulfport and Pascagoula.
Individual tickets start at $25 and season tickets at $238. First time season subscribers should call the Gulf Coast Symphony office at 228-896-4276 to receive a 50% discount.
Music for generations
“The Beatles’ cover band is going to be a whole lot of fun,” Rubardt said, and for Beethoven and Blue Jeans, the orchestra members will be dressed in jeans while they play Beethoven. They’ll also play a Leonard Bernstein song from “West Side Story,” he said and a “fabulous pianist” is coming to Gulfport for the performance.
The symphony plays a Christmas concert each year to bring families together. Free Sounds by the Sea concerts are a gift to the Coast each Memorial Day Weekend at both Gulfport and Pascagoula. This season the concert to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also will be played at both Coast cities, he said.
The musicians who play in the Gulf Coast Symphony come from South Mississippi to across the Gulf South — Mobile, Pensacola, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Meridian and other areas.
The audiences also are a mix.
But Rubardt says at times he is amazed when he turns around and looks at the wide range of people in the audience, with the older audience members who appreciate classical musical and younger music lovers.
“There’s a lot of curiosity among the younger generations about what is this thing,” he said of classical performance.
For younger generations plugged in to electronic sounds, “The appeal of actually having 75 professions on the stage at one time doing purely acoustical sound — I think there’s a lot of hunger for that,” he said.
